The Seven Teachings

The Seven Teachings are our guiding principles in the collaboration towards restoration of the cultural values, beliefs, and practices that were forbidden.

We want to take back our education and teach our history, our language and our culture. We have begun to tell our story – our history – and we want to tell it in our own words to the world, so that this will never happen to any of the other nations in the world.

- Shirley Williams, Residential School Survivor

Our Guiding Principles

Many Aboriginal organizations and communities have adopted the 7 guiding principles, in one form or another, as a moral stepping stone and cultural foundation. Each community has adapted the teachings to suit their community values. Despite where the teachings may have originated, they share the same concepts of abiding by a moral respect for all living things.

Love

Love is the gift from the Eagle. Love is a force that is undeniable. With love all things are possible. It is everyone’s right to have and experience it. In terms of the Medicine Wheel, love is the hub. It is symbolic of fire and the Creator. Man is incapable of understanding the Creator; so in turn, he gave us a way to experience love and enjoy love through our children.

Respect

Respect is the gift from the Buffalo. In all life, respect is the first and foremost. Respect oneself and respect will be bestowed (i.e. treat your body with respect and it will look after itself; treat it with poison and it will destroy itself).

Courage

The Bear carries courage. We seek the strength and courage to face our greatest enemy-oneself. The bear will give us the understanding to seek resolutions through spiritual intervention: hence, spiritual healing to deal with anger, pain and ourselves.

Honesty

Honesty is carried by the Sabe (Sasquatch). It is from within and not to confused with truth (law). In reality there is no “ifs or buts”, there can only be honesty if one is to survive. In the wilderness, one either knows survival, or one does not. Presently, man as a being is living on the edge, simply because he is not honest with himself. He does not want to believe that what he is taking in is toxic-alcohol and drugs. Furthermore he is not honest with his environment, which supports him. This generation is the first to leave a legacy of destruction; literally, we are feeding them upon our children-blatant honesty.

Wisdom

The Beaver carries wisdom. Wisdom is not to be confused with knowledge. Wisdom is the gained experience and knowledge is to know the difference and accept responsibility and accountability. When one pollutes the water, one does not break a human law, but the law of nature, which states that to poison the water, is to destroy oneself.

Humility

The Wolf carries humility. Central to the wolf is the family pack. To ensure survival, the pack must be as one. In one’s life, much the same as the wolf, we need to understand humility. In the wolf pack, each member understands his individual role and in our individual lives humility becomes the factor, which allows us to ask for guidance humbly.

Truth

The Turtle carries truth. Truth is symbolic of law and principle. Since the beginning of time the turtle has not changed. The turtle has been chosen to be the bearer of truth and the basic truth of the laws of nature have not changed. The turtle has been able to adapt to change without changing; thus he represents truth. He also represents time. His shell has thirteen big plates, symbolizing the thirteen moons in one year.

We are taking care of our own.

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